Rider Magazine's then technical editor, Mike Stubblefield, invited me to contribute to the creation of the magazine's 1984 year-end special issue which was to focus on motorcycle maintenance. A defining moment was when, over Shrimp Scampi, in Southern California's lofty Agoura Hills, I found myself surrounded by senior editors and others whose names were household words within the industry. I was pleased to be included in the meeting's agenda of discussing the magazine's next issue. But I was very naive. I was directed to cater to one of the magazine's top advertisers in my articles. At the end I was unable to come to terms with it and chose to abort my inaugural authoring career and move on to more of life's lessons. I have not looked at magazines in the same way since, though I remain to this day only mildly disappointed with Rider and continued for some years to be friends with Stubblefield afterward. He later went to work for Haynes manuals, and we lost touch.